2015 ~ Ella Dickey Literacy Award
Thursday, April 23 at 4:30 PM
Marshfield Assembly of God
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Dawn Wells
What Would Mary Ann Do? … A Guide to Life
Dreama Denver
Actress, writer, radio station owner and personality Dreama Denver met her husband of almost 30 years, television icon Bob Denver (Gilligan of Gilligan’s Island, Maynard G. Krebs of Dobie Gillis), when she was cast as his love interest in the Woody Allen play, “Play It Again, Sam”. After marrying the popular television personality, Dreama continued her acting career, appearing in a Gilligan’s Island reunion movie with Bob, co-starring with him in a TV pilot titled “Scamps” and touring the U.S. and Canada successfully and happily with her husband for over a decade.
The birth of the Denver’s son Colin, diagnosed with severe autism, changed everything for Bob and Dreama, who retired from show business and moved back to West Virginia to devote the next two decades to Colin’s full time care. During this time, the pair also founded The Denver Foundation, which honors their son and is dedicated to assisting special needs children and their families.
“The Denver Foundation and Little Buddy Radio, a nonprofit radio station owned and operated by the Foundation, were Bob’s last and most important legacies,” Dreama says, “and making these two entities as successful as possible became my mission after Bob passed away. His desire to give back to West Virginia was huge. He loved this area, considered himself an adopted West Virginian and was a tireless ambassador for the state. Regardless of how important and far reaching his television legacy was, and is, his love for our son and his desire to help other families like ours trumped even that.”
Since Bob’s death, Dreama has discovered new passions and new directions in which to take the foundation. Founding Always Free Honor Flight, WV’s first Honor Flight program, honoring WV veterans with free trips to Washington, DC to visit the memorials built to honor their service is especially close to Dreama’s heart. Leading the effort to have John Denver’s “Take Me Home Country Roads” adopted, successfully and unanimously, as an official WV state song ranks as one of the proudest days of her life, rivaled only by being chosen one of West Virginia’s Wonder Women by WV Focus magazine. The American Legion Riley-Vest Post #9 honored Dreama with their Outstanding Citizen Award in 2014 and this past January, the Princeton Mercer County Chamber of Commerce chose her as Citizen of the Year. In March, Dreama will be honored once again with the Sons of the American Revolution’s Outstanding Female Citizen of the Year.
Dreama’s recently published memoir, Gilligan’s Dreams, recounting her almost 30 year marriage to Bob, is her love letter to Bob and her gift to Bob’s fans. In detailing the Denver’s journey through autism with their son and Bob’s courage during the last 6 months of his life, Dreama allows Bob’s fans a personal glimpse of the man behind the iconic television characters he created.
“Bob would be proud,” Dreama says. “The life I had known for close to thirty years changed dramatically when Bob passed away, but I came to understand that honoring his memory meant living a full and happy life, carrying on the work we started with a heart as big as his.”
Chef Roland Mesnier
Born into a family of nine children in the tiny village of Bonnay, France, Roland Mesnier discovered his vocation by accident on a summer day at the age of twelve. Apprenticing to his older brother Jean, Roland began working at the local patisserie in exchange for room and board. From there he was hired as the pastry sous chef at the iconic Savoy Hotel in London, then was hired as the Executive Pastry Chef at what is now the Four Seasons Hotel George V in Paris. He then spent nine years at the legendary Princess Bermuda resort where he met his wife, Martha. Chef Mesnier came to the U.S. in April 1976 as Executive Pastry Chef at The Homestead, a venerable resort hotel in Hot Springs, Virginia.
Hired in 1979 by first lady Rosalyn Carter, Roland Mesnier became the first ever non-American to serve in the White House and went on to become the longest tenured chef ever – pastry or culinary – in the history of the White House
He developed and taught the first professional Pastry Arts Program at L’Academie de Cuisine in Bethesda, MD – currently ranked in the Top 10 Culinary schools in the U.S. Chef Mesnier has won 18 Gold medals, 4 Silver and 3 Bronze for his pastry creations in competitions around the world. He is a member of the Academie Culinaire de France and the recipient of many awards and accolades which include: the French Legion of Honor in 2005 – the highest honor bestowed on a French citizen; that same year he was inducted into the Chocolate and Pastry Hall of Fame. He was awarded a Doctorate of Culinary Arts from the prestigious Johnson & Wales University in South Carolina. He is the author of three books, Dessert University, Basic to Beautiful Cakes and All the Presidents Pastries: A Memoir. His fourth book, A Sweet World of White House Desserts, was released in the fall of 2011 by the White House Historical Association.
While Chef Mesnier retired from the White House in 2006, he still travels the U.S. and around the world giving speeches, judging pastry competitions and participating in fund-raising events and book signings.
Visit his website www.chefrolandmesnier.com for more information and pictures of his work and to subscribe to his monthly newsletter.
H. Alan Day
If it’s possible to say that someone can be born a cowboy, then Alan Day was born one. He and his sister Sandra Day O’Connor were part of the third generation to grow up on the 200,00-acre Lazy B cattle ranch that straddled the high deserts of southern Arizona and New Mexico. The ranching and cowboy lifestyle appealed to him so much that after graduating from the University of Arizona, he returned to manage the Lazy B for the next 40 years. During his career, he received numerous awards for his dedicated stewardship of the land. In the 1980’s, Alan purchased a cattle ranch in Nebraska, followed by a ranch in South Dakota called Mustang Meadow Ranch that became the first government sponsored sanctuary for unadoptable wild horses. He was the first rancher to develop and successfully use a herd modification-training program for cattle and wild mustangs. He relates his heartfelt adventures with the horses and government in his award-winning memoir The Horse Lover: A Cowboy’s Quest to Save the Wild Mustangs, co-authored with Lynn Wiese Sneyd. Booklist has called it an “instant classic.”
Alan’s first book was the New York Times best-selling memoir, Lazy B, which he co-authored with Justice O’Connor. In it, they tell the story of the Day family and of growing up on the harsh yet beautiful southwestern cattle ranch.
Now a retired rancher, Alan divides his time between Tucson and Pinetop, Arizona. Through genealogy tracing, his daughter recently discovered that the Day family is related to Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams.
Lynn Wiese Sneyd
Lynn Wiese Sneyd is professional writer and owner of LWS Literary Services in Tucson. She coordinates national, regional and local publicity campaigns for authors, crafts query letters and book proposals, ghostwrites, and edits.
She is the author of Holistic Parenting and the co-author of Healthy Solutions, which received the Arizona Book Award for best health and wellness book. Lynn’s articles, essays and poetry have appeared in various publications around the country. Most recently she co-authored the award-winning memoir, The Horse Lover: A Cowboy’s Quest to Save the Wild Mustangs with H. Alan Day.
She now lives in Tucson, Arizona, but is a Midwesterner at heart, having lived for many years in Wisconsin. You can visit her at www.lwsliteraryservices.com.
Sally Tippett Rains
Sally Tippett Rains is the author of 11 books including the award winning The Making of a Masterpiece,The Story of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With The Wind, and producer of a documentary based on the book–which aired on HEC- Higher Education Channel and won a Telly Award. She is co-owner of StLSportsPage.com with her author/sports writer husband, Rob Rains, bringing her back to her sports roots at KMOX Radio– writing and producing for Bob Costas and Jack Buck. Sally Rains worked in radio sports for five years, switching to book writing and charity work while raising their two sons B.J. and Mike Rains. She is also the volunteer Executive Director of Rainbows for Kids, a 501 (c)(3) charity for families of children with cancer, started and run by her family. She attended the University of Missouri- Columbia and graduated from Webster University in St. Louis with a degree in Media/Communications. In 1992, Sally Rains was on the board for the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C. and put on a reception at the U.S. Capitol attended by two U.S. Congressmen, to honor the Missouri Cherry Blossom Princess, who, coincidentally, was from Marshfield, MO that year.